In a culture where our wants and needs often become indistinguishable, God spends a lot of time listening to people who only talk about themselves – protect me, comfort me, heal or fix me, give me, etc. Sometimes this gets folded right into our faith lives like onions and green pepper into an omelet. On the other hand, deep distrust of human desire is an iron strand of Christian faith for many. If we want it for ourselves, God probably... Read more
In her new book, Teach Us To Want, Jen Pollock Michel guides us on a journey of understanding who we are when we want, and reintroduces us to a God who gives us the desires of our hearts. Pollock Michel is a regular contributor for Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics and writes for Today in the Word, published by The Moody Bible Institute. Here, she delves into the desires of our hearts. Why is it important to admit desire? We need more... Read more
Book Review — Saints and Social Justice: A Guide to Changing the World, by Brandon Vogt We are always given good news when we are give guidance in holding together what seems to get separated so often in the Church—the inner journey of Spirit and the outward journey of acts of mercy and justice. This new book by Brandon Vogt, a fairly recent convert to Roman Catholicism, is very helpful in that task. He has looked to exemplars in the... Read more
This month at the Patheos Book Club, we’re featuring a new book by Ben Stevens, Why God Created the World, a remarkable new adaptation bringing Jonathan Edwards’ powerful arguments to life in fresh, contemporary language. Stevens shared some thoughts about the book with us here. What got you interested in this topic? I stumbled onto it while working on a different project, actually. I have always been intrigued by the statement “everything that’s important in the Bible is counter-intuitive.” And I’ve been... Read more
“When we choose to re-enter into relationship with the spirits, we shift our perceptions of what is real or possible and so can more easily manifest creative solutions to our current issues. In expanding our awareness, we change the landscape of possibilities that are open to us.” — Evelyn C. Rysdyk, author and shamanic teacher This month at the Patheos Book Club, we’re featuring a new book by artist and shamanic teacher Evelyn C. Rysdyk called A Spirit Walker’s Guide... Read more
Beyond inspiring individual Christians to rethink what it means to suffer for Christ or to be willing to give up everything for one’s faith, Habib’s story will also undoubtedly be of interest for evangelists to the Middle East. Read more
About halfway through grad school course work, I had a professor who asked each student in our class what we wanted to do with our lives once we’d earned our Ph.D.’s. His enthusiasm and encouragement for the future professors, administrators, community activists, and citizen-scholars in the group was ebullient. When I said I wanted to be a mother? Crickets. By that point in the program though, I’d already pushed what is perhaps an even more taboo button in academia: I’m... Read more
I am a millennial. Born in 1983, I fall smack dab in the middle of the 20-somethin’, 30-somethin’ generation that has been the source of a great deal of pearl-clutching by American religious leaders of late. The source of their concern—as Naomi Schaefer Riley addresses in her latest book Got Religion? How Churches, Mosques and Synagogues Can Bring Young People Back—is that millennials have lost their faith, a fact effectively suggesting that—unless some kind of intervention takes place—there may be no... Read more
The first time I was inspired to buy 317 million copies of a book and have them delivered to each doorstep in America was after discovering Randy Alcorn’s paradigm-shifting Safely Home back in 2012. I now have a second book to add to the list: Vinh Chung’s Where the Wind Leads. Seriously, this book will change your life. To preface: I am raising newborn twins, and I read all 348 pages in less than 24 hours. For those who may not... Read more
“If you have been reading the surveys and looking around at your own congregation and thinking that the average age of the people in the pews seems to be creeping up, Got Religion? will help sort out some of the data, but it will also provide some suggestions for ways that other congregations of various religious stripes are dealing with this challenge.” — Naomi Schaefer Riley, author, Got Religion? The 2012 Pew Forum study proclaiming that fully a third of American adults... Read more
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